Arkport’s 2006 Case, Still Unresolved

ARKPORT, NY – Arkport Village Mayor Charlie Flanders says that Arkport Village Hall is at a stalemate with Arkport Department of Public Works Chief Bob Mauro. According to Flanders, Mauro interprets his job description one way, and the mayor sees things another way. Mayor Flanders says that the village residents are suffering from some of the things that Mauro now refuses to do, such as widening roads and blacktopping them. Mauro now says he won’t perform those duties, saying it’s not part of his actual job.

The DPW chief disagrees with having to pay the village about $14,000, plus interest, in unused sick and vacation time. This is an issue going back to the year 2006 when the state comptroller’s office investigated several Arkport employees. A Steuben County Judge ruled in May of 2016, that Mauro had to pay back the unused sick and vacation money from 2006, something that Mauro refuses to do. DPW Chief Mauro says that with the interest, that $14,000 is now well over $27,000. Mauro maintains that the unused sick and vacation time was comp time, for hours that he worked at that time, and the rest were benefit hours. Bob Mauro also says that in 2006, what he wrote down for his hours worked, was all according to Arkport Village Policy.

The DPW chief says he’s appealing the 2016 ruling from the Steuben County Court. Mauro told WLEA News that it does not matter to him how much he has to spend on this, stating that he was not wrong, back in the year 2006. Mauro added that the legal bills he has had to pay for an attorney, equal what he should have been paid back by the Arkport Village Hall. Mauro believes that he is owed money from the village hall, because he maintains that he did nothing wrong.